[Kai] Ryssdal: What was it about this bill you didn't much care for?

[Peter] DeFazio [a democrat from oregon in the House]: Well, I thought the whole premise on which it was based was false, but somehow if the taxpayers borrowed $700 billion and took a bunch of bad debts from Wall Street, that this would bring about liquidity and then ultimately would somehow filter down help Main Street, help housing, help the basic economy. But beyond that, we've heard from William Isaacs, head of the FDIC. He ran it during the last, previous greatest financial crisis in the history of America, savings and loan, and he said a couple of simple steps could deal with the bank liquidity issue.

So I think there are practical proposals out there that just weren't heard. And in addition to that, Paulson didn't at all get, in my mind, to the underlying part of the economy -- the problems in housing and the declining housing market. There are credible economists who said: Hey, if you don't deal with housing, you may be taking care of this week's bad securities, but guess what? Next week, if housing goes down another 5 percent, there's gonna be a whole batch more bad securities out there. You've gotta deal with the underlying problems in housing and the underlying problems in the economy.

Read (or listen to) it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The September 2008 Proposed Henry Paulson 700 Billion Bailout Package • Politics in General

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